By Zach Foster
Many of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s supporters are absolutely ecstatic that Perry was the decisive victor in the 2011 Pacific County GOP straw poll. Pacific County is located in the southern part of the state of Washington. Perry garnered a whopping 43% of the overall vote, with Ron Paul coming in a distant second place with 17% of the vote. Perry, a newcomer to the race for the GOP presidential candidacy nomination, has been stirring up the political scene with many observers calling him “George W. Bush on steroids.”
Many of Perry’s most ardent supporters, many of whom are also vehement enemies of Ron Paul and his supporters (whom they endearingly refer to as “Paulbots”), have been gloating at Paul’s supporters that he came in so distantly behind Perry in this straw poll. The fact which they conveniently overlook is that ONLY ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN (127) PEOPLE voted in the Pacific County Straw Poll.[1] That being a whopping fifty-five people voting for Perry as opposed to the 4,621 people who voted for Ron Paul in the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll.
“So what!” is what some might say. “Rick Perry wasn’t even on the ballot for the Ames Straw Poll!” That is true, however, the day of the Ames poll was the day that Perry FORMALLY (not for the first time, but formally) announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination, and his supporters did indeed vote for him. 718 of Perry’s supporters voted for him as a write-in candidate.[2] Even though he wasn’t on the ballot, he certainly was voted for. Meanwhile Ron Paul, who (unlike Perry) has always held the same philosophies and principles in politics, brought in over six times the number of votes Perry did in Ames. This alone would be fairly reasonable weight to negate the so-called victory in Pacific County. Oh and by the way, many of Perry’s supporters have referred to the Pacific County Straw Poll simply as the Pacific Straw Poll, as if to make it seem like this straw poll included Republicans from all over the Pacific coast. Nice try!
“Who cares?!” many Perry supporters (or anti-Paul Republicans) might say. “Paul still lost to Michele Bachmann in Ames!” This is true. However, there are elements of the Ames Straw Poll which are seen, and other elements which are not seen (shoutout to Bastiat!). What is seen is how Bachmann NARROWLY defeated Paul by 152 votes. What is not seen is that, while Paul was simply campaigning for votes in Ames, Bachmann bought her votes by having a petting zoo and handing out free tickets to a Randy Travis celebrity country music concert, making people vote for her before accessing these perks (bribes).[3][4] It is known that 4,000 of her 4,823 votes were BOUGHT.[5] Ron Paul, who finished with 4,621 votes managed to garner this support without a petting zoo, a country music concert, or handing out thousands of free tickets. Therefore, it’s safe to say that Paul is a top-tier Republican candidate, no matter how badly Fox News hates it.
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| President Ronald Reagan compli- menting Congressman Paul's work |
So not only did Paul actually earn his votes in Ames (unlike Bachmann), but he also received over six times the amount of votes as Perry. As proud as his supporters might be over his whopping fifty-five votes in Pacific County, he is not the leading GOP candidate—Ron Paul is. Perry supporters can try to cite this as a false victory over Perry since Perry wasn’t officially on the ballot (and that theoretically would have cost him votes), but in all honesty, all people know that the people who were ready to vote for Perry did so, and the people who were ready to vote for Ron Paul did so as well.
Congratulations to Candidate Perry and his supporters for their victory in Pacific County, Washington. Just remember, though, that their miniscule victory in a county-wide straw poll means nothing next to Ron Paul’s great and honest victory over Perry in Ames.
[1] http://m.chinookobserver.com/mobile/article_3c6a454a-d364-11e0-a20e-001cc4c03286.html
[2] http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/13/ames-straw-poll-results-bachmann/
[3] http://www.revolutionpac.com/2011/08/bachmann-buys-votes-paul-is-top-tier-ron-paul-superbomb/
[4] http://www.unelected.org/how-michele-bachmann-bought-the-ames-straw-poll
[5] http://www.domasjefferson.com/news/bachmann-rigged-iowa-poll-by-buying-at-least-4000-votes
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